Big 8 expansion
- Thread starter red & black brotherhood
- Start date
Ok. Then send them to whatever conference will take them. Geographically they do not need to be in the OC.
Says who? Rolla is just as far away from Springfield as West Plains is... man.. West Plains wins the conference championship in 2014 and finishes 2nd in 2015 and suddenly their location is a problem. Hahahahahaha.
You go ahead and find me a Class 4-5 conference down here that's better suited for them. Oh wait, there's not one.
Actually, the St. James team was fun to watch. They played well, hit hard, and were sportsmanlike (excepting one player). Cassville did have key minor injuries for that game and the JV did get extra play time but those are both common issues every week for Big 8 teams. The only problems I saw with St. James was that they had almost no kicking game and their red zone offense sputters out. Otherwise, they are fun to watch. I'm looking forward to next year's game on their turf.
Rolla at least has some teams close to them (Waynesville Lebanon Camdenton). West plains does not.
Ozark Conference East
Camdenton
Lebanon
Marshfield
Rolla
Waynesville
West Plains
Ozark Conference West
Central
Glendale
Hillcrest
Kickapoo
Logan-Rogersville
Parkview
Central Ozarks Conference East
Bolivar
Branson
Nixa
Ozark
Republic
Willard
Central Ozarks Conference West
Carl Junction
Carthage
Joplin
McDonald County or Nevada
Neosho
Webb City
Play your division, then 4 from the other division on a rotating basis every two years. Rogersville school size doesn't match up with the Springfield schools, but they are the best fit geographically and Rogersville could compete yearly with Central, Hillcrest, and Parkview for sure. I'm sure it will also experience a population growth soon as well.
Camdenton
Lebanon
Marshfield
Rolla
Waynesville
West Plains
Ozark Conference West
Central
Glendale
Hillcrest
Kickapoo
Logan-Rogersville
Parkview
Central Ozarks Conference East
Bolivar
Branson
Nixa
Ozark
Republic
Willard
Central Ozarks Conference West
Carl Junction
Carthage
Joplin
McDonald County or Nevada
Neosho
Webb City
Play your division, then 4 from the other division on a rotating basis every two years. Rogersville school size doesn't match up with the Springfield schools, but they are the best fit geographically and Rogersville could compete yearly with Central, Hillcrest, and Parkview for sure. I'm sure it will also experience a population growth soon as well.
Big 10
Aurora
Cassville
Catholic
East Newton
Lamar
Monett
Mount Vernon
McDonald County or Nevada
Reeds Spring
Seneca
Mid Lakes Small
Ash Grove
Clever
Marionville
Pleasant Hope
Skyline
Stockton
Mid Lakes Large
Buffalo
El Dorado Springs
Fair Grove
Forysth
Hollister
Strafford
Aurora
Cassville
Catholic
East Newton
Lamar
Monett
Mount Vernon
McDonald County or Nevada
Reeds Spring
Seneca
Mid Lakes Small
Ash Grove
Clever
Marionville
Pleasant Hope
Skyline
Stockton
Mid Lakes Large
Buffalo
El Dorado Springs
Fair Grove
Forysth
Hollister
Strafford
I like this plan, but would add an interesting wrinkle and one other change. First the change in your plan: play your 5 division opponents plus only 3 from the other division, so that over a two year span you play your cross division opponents exactly one time each.
Now for the wrinkle: with those aforementioned 8 games on the slate for weeks 1 thru 8 OR else weeks 2 thru 9, use the remaining Friday night for the giant cross conference classic where each of the 12 OC teams has a single COC opponent. And that could cycle through over a 12-year span too to mix up opponents, but that's a long time. So possibly that's done more by the conference commissioners who can set the OC/COC classic week each year depending on where programs are at. Or even more fun if mshsaa allowed it, leave week 9 open each year so that after week 8, the best OC team meets the best COC team and so on throughout the final conference standings!
From my understanding, I think the Mid-Lakes would like to go North-South. They sent invitations to schools like Warsaw and El Dorado Springs I believe.
League origin started in 1920 as informal league, only had to play 5 league games. By 1927 had 23 members and split into A (large) and B. Reorganized as more formal league for 1928 then after 1929 season the 8 voted out Springfield and Joplin. Was always the Southwest Conference but better known as Big 8. Southwest Inter-High League 1920-1927, Southwest Activities Association 1928- unknown when stopped using this formal name but used Big 8-9-10-13-(14)-8. Big 14 was never used as not long after Memorial admitted it split in to Big 8 and Big 6 (82-84) then when Memorial closed Big 6 started using original conference name of Southwest (85-07).
Shouldn't Bolivar look for a league with teams more its size if they really want to see the kind of teams they will see in the playoffs? They could have joined the large COC and they did not want to. As far as "rolling through everyone" They hardly rolled Reeds Spring last year...
Like Oklahoma teams are in 8 team districts then have 3 non district games but all other sports are in conferences and many of them date back to the 1920s and 1930s. Not sure if it was 1960s or 1970s that districts really took over and leagues were non existent for football.
Oklahoma did not go to the 8 team districts until the mid-late 80's. Before that is was four team districts played the last three games of the season. They still somewhat played conferences.
I don't see anyone saying this about Marshfield (which has more students than Bolivar). Also, there is only one class 2 team in the COC small and adding them was a mutual mistake. Bolivar is closer in size to Log Rog, Reeds Spring and the private Catholic than it is to many of the teams in the COC large.
At this point I would probably like to see there be one COC like it used to be, divided like the SEC does with East and West. Bolivar would be in the East. It would certainly be tough sledding since most of the old COC teams have grown faster than Bolivar (Branson, Ozark, Nixa, Willard, Republic) but its already tough as one of the smaller class 4 schools
Reeds Spring seems to be a perfect fit (other than mid-week travel in sports other than football) I am going to say Reeds Spring and Nevada make the most since if they only take two.. But what about taking those two plus Rogersville and Hollister. They could have two six team divisions. play two crossover games and two non-conference games
Someone was suggesting Bolivar to the big 8. There are class 2 schools in the big 8 (just Lamar currently but others have been). I just thought Bolivar might be tired of beating up on smaller schools and would look to find larger schools to align with.
If they were tired of beating up on small schools, they would've gotten out of the COC-Small sometime in the last 13 years.
Idk if they want to play larger schools on a regular after the beat down they got at west plains last year.
Idk if they want to play larger schools on a regular after the beat down they got at west plains last year.
Bolivar feasted in a very weak COC small for over the last decade. I don't know if Bolivar could have won that many conference titles in the big 8 on a yearly bases, Lamar is no normal class 2 school, I do think they would be a top team but they would not have dominated the big 8 like the did the COC small. I would not mind seeing Bolivar join the big 8, for over 50 years Monett and Bolivar opened the season like clock work, sometime in the 90's it was ranked as one of the top 10 rival games in SWMO. So I would like to see them join.
I think Joining the Big 8 would do Reeds and Bolivar some good. Not sure if Logan Rogersville can get it going but I think they would be a nice add too.
I dont want to see it happen but if they add reeds and nevada for now. When the coc small folds adding log rog marshfield and bolivar then forcing the western schools out into a i-49 league that would be lamar, nevada, newt, seneca, and mac that would need a couple more members such as butler and eldo
I really don't think they will add anybody because I am not sure all conference members could agree on who to add. Monett, Aurora & Mt Vernon pretty much are geographically in the middle so I don't know if any of them care. However when you start looking at Lamar Seneca & Cassville then maybe Mac County you start looking at any of those on that list and somebody is going to have to drive and I don't think any of them could agree. And the Big 8 members vote together.
What about Sarcoxie? they have a nice football field and look to be building a nice sports complex over that way, just not sure if they are growing or would be big enough?
Sarcoxie has trouble competing in the conference they are in most years. Nevada, Bolivar, Reeds Spring, LR would be a good addition. And maybe add Hollister, Strafford, Eldorado Springs, and Butler. Make an East division and a West out of those 16 teams. Crossover and play two teams from the other division for a nine game schedule.
Main thing is, consider the mascots. Good grief, nearly everybody in the large COC are Tigers.
We bought "beat the Tigers" shirts and wear them every other week to games.
We bought "beat the Tigers" shirts and wear them every other week to games.
West Plains also had one of their better teams in recent memory last yr as well. Bolivar has competed pretty well against bigger competition over the years. Yes there have been some notable beat downs but to act like they arent competitive is just wrong. Bolivar beat Hillcrest everytime when they had DGB.
Moving to the big 8 is not going to help them in the class 4 playoffs.
